Japanese Film Industry

TV-shows, commercials, movies and serials (or how they are called by fans, dramas) made in Japan are masterpieces. Yeah, yeah, you may now splutter with laughter, but the goal will be reached if by the end of the article you think twice whether it was a joke or truth.

A pound to a penny: all of you saw, or, at least, heard about Japanese “genius” commercials. “They are hilarious, amusing and simply stupid”, – an intelligent person would say, but you DO remember these funny videos, don’t you? This may be explained by the willing to stand out, to amaze the spectacular, which always works for Japanese creative minds. Thus, it cannot come as a surprise that you will remember the dramas produced in Japan for a very long time after watching, and there are plenty of reasons for this.

Drama-Factor

Well, these serials are called dramas for a reason, as there are always conflicts that lay between main heroes: social ones or personal. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what KIND of drama you are watching (Asian serials like any others are represented in all genres starting from historical ending by psychological), life journey of heroes will always have a thorny path.

The drama itself can be connected with difficult relationships in a family, endless trying to find a good job, money matter, daily routine with studying (which, though, is full of bullying or thoughts of suicide) and so on. Thereby, besides problems in a love story, social questions are highlighted as well as cultural, moral and economic ones.

Culture as a Soul

Eating habits, school weekdays, dress choice, boss-employee subordination and expression of feelings – all this is a manifestation of cultural life of Japanese people. Sometimes it is hard for the Eastern watcher to understand why, for example, groupmates or co-workers call each other by surname, even though they meet every day or even go to lunch together. Or, say, why on Earth a girl and a guy in a romantic (!) drama kiss 2 times, hug 3 times and hold hands maybe 4 times? Surprised? Well, telling you – this is a contribution to a culture and believe a person, who has seen 130 Asian dramas (42 of them are the Japanese serials, and 33 are the Japanese movies) that this high level of spiritual upbringing, deep respect to the elders and goodhearted nature can be reached any time soon. This is only a subjective opinion. This has been said with all due respect to the all the nations in the world.

One more thing to be added to this paragraph is the fact that Japanese people seek to follow the traditions without breaking or changing them.

So, this multilevel web of duty and commitment, requests from parents and dreams of children, conventionalities and wishes can be clearly seen while watching Japanese dramas. That is why in addition to pleasant emotions, likable heroes, you will also get an informative idea about Land of The Rising Sun.

Favorite Patterns

Japanese drama has its own laws of the genre: some of them are funny, some are unusual and some just placed to please the watcher or fan of dramas, because let’s not forget that like many others movie-makers, Japanese producers also create another reality, which is more exciting, more alluring and weird too.

Among the funniest and the well-loved “patterns” of Japanese actions in dramas the following could be underlined:

If a person stumbles and falls, he or she will necessarily “land” on the lips of the other person. Usually, “victim” is a subject of a secret love or a subject of the future first love (because guess what? – in 100% of accidents it is a first kiss of a heroine/hero).

No matter how big the city is, an accidental meeting is guaranteed. Especially, if the main heroes had a quarrel. At the same time, the chance to run into each other while going down the same street, or being in the very same building, is nearly impossible, because if you look for somebody, you should get under the rain, get upset and then come down with a cold, so that the other half would take after you.

The love between a millionaire and a commoner is not a fairytale! Typical traits of character for a girl then would be honesty, sense of justice and adherence to principles. For the boy, such a package is following: top-loftiness, selfishness and arrogance towards everything connected with ordinary people’s world. (Representatives of the last category may not know what a supermarket is).

Heroes despise public transport, because it’s much easier to catch up with a leaving person on your feet.

If a hero got into troubles and had a fight (a real one) against some band with clubs or sticks, and they beat him nearly to death, on the next day the maximum outcome that we will see is a plaster on the nose/forehead.

This list may be continued by many others examples of Japanese humor, illogical thinking and touching methods of flirt, but the real task is to break your misconceptions towards Japanese and Asian dramas in the whole (if there are any), and to open to you another fabulous universe.